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Thursday, 17 March 2011

Chelsea 0 - 0 FC Copenhagen (agg 2 - 0)

Chelsea cruised through to the last eight of the Champions League for the sixth time in eight seasons despite being held at home by Copenhagen.
Yuri Zhirkov shot wide and Nicolas Anelka had an effort saved as Chelsea failed to add to a 2-0 first-leg lead.
The home side were give a scare when Dame N'Doye's free-kick hit the post.
The chances flowed for Chelsea but Jon Mikel Obi's header hit the Copenhagen crossbar and substitute Fernando Torres had a shot deflected wide.
Torres, who came on after 68 minutes, also burst past a defender before having a poked effort saved as he went six outings without scoring for Chelsea since his £50m January move from Liverpool.
A goal was all a Chelsea side, with the striking riches of Anelka and Didier Drogba also in their ranks, lacked on a night when they showed some glimpses of eye-catching football.
It was the type of performance which gives notice they are almost back to the kind of form which helped them to a domestic double of league and FA Cup last season.
Apart from N'Doye's rare chance for the visitors, an upset never appeared on the cards for a Chelsea side who have now lost only once at home in 26 Champions League games.
Instead, with the home side in such a commanding position from the first leg, the spotlight of match threatened to fall on whether Torres could break his goalscoring duck.
But Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti resisted placing such a focus on the Spaniard as he started with him on the bench, although Torres must have been looking on longingly as Chelsea relished their two-goal cushion by playing with freedom and fluency.
The roving runs of left-back Ashley Cole were an early feature of the Stamford Bridge side's play and he firstly laid the ball across for Frank Lampard to shoot wide before finding the side-netting with an angled shot after two well-worked moves.
Anelka was wrongly ruled offside when a simple pass for Lampard to tap in awaited, before Drogba's backheel and Cole's lay-off gave Zhirkov a strike at goal which the Russian sent just wide.